Press Release: Local Greens Headed to National Convention

Local Greens serve as delegates to Presidential Nominating ConventionNational Green Party gathering takes place July 11-14

Several members of the St. Joe Valley Greens will be traveling to Chicago
this weekend to attend the Green Party US’s National Convention where Green
delegates from across the country will adopt a national party platform and
nominate the Green presidential candidate.

Former South Bend City Common Council candidate Kathleen Petitjean and
current IUSB political science student Robin Beck, both of the St. Joe
Valley Greens, were elected delegates and will be among hundreds of
delegates from around the country who will cast votes to decide the Greens’
presidential candidate.

“It’s very exciting to be a part of the largest national gathering of Greens
since 2004. I’m honored to represent Greens from North Central Indiana and
to cast a vote to nominate a Green candidate for president,” said Petitjean
who collected 23% of the vote in her 2007 bid for office. “I’m looking
forward to having a true progressive alternative to the corporate-friendly
policies of McCain and Obama.”

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney currently holds a significant
lead in pledged delegates though three other candidates remain on the
ballot. After serving 4 terms in the US House of Representatives as a
Democrat, McKinney left the Democratic Party in September 2007 and formally
joined the Green Party the following month. Ralph Nader, who ran as the
Greens’ presidential nominee in 2000 and received nearly 2.9 million votes,
will not run for the Greens’ nomination having opted for an independent
candidacy.

The eventual Green Party presidential candidate’s name will not appear on
the Indiana ballot later this fall because the Green Party does not have
ballot access in this state. Citizens interested in voting Green will have
to write in the candidate’s. Ballot access experts assert that Indiana’sballot access laws are among the most restrictive in the country. No Green
candidate has ever appeared on a statewide Hoosier ballot and Indiana is one
of only five states where Nader did not achieve ballot access in either his
2000 or 2004 campaigns.

“Keeping Greens off the ballot in Indiana only serves to limit the public
discussion on important issues including environmental protections,
sustainable energy alternatives, the erosion of the middle class, and the
role of corporations in our society,” said Beck, co-founder of the GLBT
Resource Center of Michiana. “Third parties give voters a choice–what is so
wrong with that?”